The Fisher 220 - more commonly called the 220-T in period advertising - was the company's first all-solid-state AM/FM stereo receiver. It showed up when Fisher, already the world's largest manufacturer of stereo components, was moving from tube designs to transistors. Almost everything documented comes from magazine ads and a brief introductory article. The Archive's holdings have no comprehensive review and no service manual.
The 220-T was a moderately powered, moderately priced integrated receiver for buyers who wanted a single-box system with the Fisher name on it. HiFI/Stereo (October 1966, p.67) reported 55 watts (IHF) at 4 ohms and 40 watts at 8 ohms, with harmonic distortion listed at 0.8% and IM distortion at 1%. The front end used a FET (field-effect transistor) for sensitivity. The tuner section had Fisher's patented Stereo Beacon automatic switching circuitry. A Transist-O-Gard circuit protected the output transistors from overload. Fisher also made a point of the 24-carat gold-plated front panel, which carried over from their tube-era prestige models.
Original price was $329.50, and a walnut cabinet added $24.95. High Fidelity (May 1967, p.2) ran the same specification summary in a full-page ad. The ad urged readers to "buy the one that sounds best" and then, oddly, to "try to forget for a moment that the 220-T is a Fisher." That suggests the company knew brand loyalty alone wouldn't close the sale in an increasingly crowded solid-state receiver market.
Past those advertising facts, the historical record on the 220 is thin. The Archive's research has turned up no schematic, no service data, no owner's manual and no contemporary lab test.
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